Playing career

McKenzie's teammates dubbed him "Pieface" for his resemblance to a cartoon figure of the same name featured on the wrapper of a popular Canadian candy bar, but within a few years the nickname evolved to "Pie." After three years in the junior leagues — for which he starred with the St. Catharines Teepees of the OHA and led the league in goals and points in 1958 — McKenzie made his NHL debut during the 1959 season with the Chicago Black Hawks.

The following season he moved on to the Detroit Red Wings, where he lasted two years. He was then demoted back to the minors, playing for most of three seasons in the American Hockey League with the Hershey Bears and the Buffalo Bisons, and was named to the league's First All-Star Team in 1963. He returned to the NHL again during the 1964 season, once again with the Black Hawks, and two years later played for the New York Rangers for part of the 1966 season, halfway during which he was traded to the Rangers' arch-rivals, the Boston Bruins.

He was an immediate impact player in Boston, and it was with the Bruins that the 5-foot-9-inch, 170 pound (77 kg) right wing had the most productive seasons of his career. He became a star in the 1968 season, scoring twenty-eight goals and gaining a reputation as a pesky, relentless hustler. He would score twenty-nine goals each of the next two seasons, and would win the accolade as Second Team All-Star in the 1970 season, when in the Stanley Cup playoffs he would score seventeen points in fourteen games, fourth on the team after Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito and John Bucyk and a feat he would repeat in 1972. His best season statistically was the following year, when he scored thirty-one goals and 77 points in 65 games. All in all, McKenzie scored 169 goals in his seven years in Boston and helped the Bruins win two Stanley Cup titles, in 1970 and again in 1972.

A notorious incident took place immediately after the Bruins defeated the Rangers in six games in the Stanley Cup finals in the latter year (winning the clinching game on the Rangers' home ice at Madison Square Garden), McKenzie skated to center ice, raised one arm in a Statue of Liberty pose, placing his other hand around his neck, making a "choke" gesture (alluding to the fact that the result of the series had left the Rangers still looking for their first Stanley Cup championship since 1940), then jumping up and down in a circle several times. This became known as the "McKenzie Choke Dance," or simply the "choke dance."

Following the Bruins second Stanley Cup championship in 1972, McKenzie was disgruntled at being left unprotected in the expansion draft, and though the Bruins did not lose him, he signed as player-coach with the Philadelphia Blazers of the newly formed World Hockey Association (WHA). With a poor 2-11-0 coaching record through his first 13 games, he stepped down from his head coach position in favor of veteran coach Phil Watson, but continued to play effectively for the Blazers, the Minnesota Fighting Saints, the Cincinnati Stingers and finally the New England Whalers. McKenzie finished his career in the WHA's final season in 1979, having played in twenty-one major professional seasons.

Retirement

In 2007, McKenzie served as the coach of the Berklee Ice Cats, the newly formed hockey team at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Following that, he was the liaison for hockey development at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He is currently retired.

Career achievements and facts

• Played in 691 NHL games, totalling 206 goals, 268 assists and 917 penalty minutes
• Played in 477 WHA games (7th all-time), totalling 163 goals, 250 assists and 413 points (16th all-time)
• Played in the NHL All-Star Game in 1970 and 1972
• Played in the Summit Series for Team Canada in 1974 against the Soviet Union
• His #19 was retired by the Hartford Whalers, making him — unusually — one of only three players whose number was retired by an NHL franchise for which he never actually played (the other two being J. C. Tremblay by the Quebec Nordiques and Frank Finnigan by the modern-day Ottawa Senators). It was widely believed at the time, since McKenzie's contributions to the WHA Whalers were modest, that the honor was a public relations sop to the Boston Bruins' fan base for which Whalers management was competing.
• In 2010, he was elected as an inaugural inductee into the World Hockey Association Hall of Fame in the “Legends of the Game” category.

Career statistics

				Regular season						Playoffs
Season	Team	League		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
1953-54	Calgary Buffaloes	WCJHL		34	6	8	14	12		5	0	0	0	2
1954-55	Medicine Hat Tigers	WCJHL		39	14	4	18	33		5	0	0	0	4
1955-56	Nanton Palominos	FHHL		—	—	—	—	—		—	—	—	—	—
1955-56	Calgary Stampeders	WHL		1	0	0	0	0		2	0	1	1	2
1956-57	St. Catharines Teepees	OHA-Jr.		52	32	38	70	143		14	9	11	20	50
1957-58	St. Catharines Teepees	OHA-Jr.		52	48	51	99	227		8	8	4	12	19
1958-59	Chicago Black Hawks	NHL		32	3	4	7	22		2	0	0	0	2
1958-59	Calgary Stampeders	WHL		13	2	5	7	18		—	—	—	—	—
1959-60	Detroit Red Wings	NHL		59	8	12	20	50		2	0	0	0	0
1960-61	Detroit Red Wings	NHL		16	3	1	4	13		—	—	—	—	—
1960-61	Hershey Bears	AHL		47	19	23	42	84		8	3	6	9	10
1961-62	Hershey Bears	AHL		58	30	29	59	149		7	1	2	3	19
1962-63	Buffalo Bisons	AHL		71	35	46	81	122		13	8	12	20	28
1963-64	Chicago Black Hawks	NHL		45	9	9	18	50		4	0	1	1	6
1964-65	St. Louis Braves	CHL		5	5	4	9	17		—	—	—	—	—
1964-65	Chicago Black Hawks	NHL		51	8	10	18	46		11	0	1	1	6
1965-66	New York Rangers	NHL		35	6	5	11	36		—	—	—	—	—
1965-66	Boston Bruins	NHL		36	13	9	22	36		—	—	—	—	—
1966-67	Boston Bruins	NHL		69	17	19	36	98		—	—	—	—	—
1967-68	Boston Bruins	NHL		74	28	38	66	107		4	1	1	2	8
1968-69	Boston Bruins	NHL		60	29	27	56	99		10	2	2	4	17
1969-70	Boston Bruins	NHL		72	29	41	70	114		14	5	12	17	35
1970-71	Boston Bruins	NHL		65	31	46	77	120		7	2	3	5	22
1971-72	Boston Bruins	NHL		77	22	47	69	126		15	5	12	17	37
1972-73	Philadelphia Blazers	WHA		60	28	50	78	157		4	3	1	4	8
1973-74	Vancouver Blazers	WHA		45	14	38	52	71		—	—	—	—	—
1974-75	Vancouver Blazers	WHA		74	23	37	60	84		—	—	—	—	—
1975-76	Minnesota Fighting Saints	WHA		57	21	26	47	52		—	—	—	—	—
1975-76	Cincinnati Stingers	WHA		12	3	10	13	6		—	—	—	—	—
1976-77	Minnesota Fighting Saints	WHA		40	17	13	30	42		—	—	—	—	—
1976-77	New England Whalers	WHA		34	11	19	30	25		5	2	1	3	8
1977-78	New England Whalers	WHA		79	27	29	56	61		14	6	6	12	16
1978-79	New England Whalers	WHA		76	19	28	47	115		10	3	7	10	10
NHL totals				691	206	268	474	917		69	15	32	47	133
WHA totals				477	163	250	413	619		33	14	15	29	42

Coaching record

Team	Year	Regular season						Post season
		G	W	L	T	Pts	Finish	Result
Philadelphia Blazers	1972-73	7	1	6	0	(2)	3rd in WHA East	(resigned)
Vancouver Blazers	1973-74	7	3	4	0	(6)	5th in WHA West	(interim coach)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]